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<blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 8847098" data-attributes="member: 6779196">I stand by parentage meaning exactly the way race was used. But I do think ancestry sounds better. People also works pretty perfectly.The problem for me isn’t that it sounds too sci-fi, it’s that the word species is part of a system that organizes life forms by their evolutionary branch from a common ancestor, which just isn’t how it works in D&amp;D.I don’t think confusion is the problem. I think the problem is that the word species implies something about the relationships between the peoples of D&amp;D that isn’t lore-accurate. Dwarves are not to elves as dogs are to cats.The interbreeding thing really isn’t the problem, it’s just illustrative of the problem. This is why I keep bringing up the common ancestor thing. All life on Earth is related through evolution from a single common ancestor. Life forms that are more distantly related are typically less similar (though there are cases of convergent evolution where very distantly related species develop similar traits), and it is usually only very closely related species that can interbreed. In D&amp;D? None of that is the case. Life forms are directly created by gods or magic, and have no evolutionary relationship to other created life forms, yet they can interbreed freely. The entire taxonomic system just makes absolutely no sense to apply to D&amp;D.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Charlaquin, post: 8847098, member: 6779196"] I stand by parentage meaning exactly the way race was used. But I do think ancestry sounds better. People also works pretty perfectly. The problem for me isn’t that it sounds too sci-fi, it’s that the word species is part of a system that organizes life forms by their evolutionary branch from a common ancestor, which just isn’t how it works in D&D. I don’t think confusion is the problem. I think the problem is that the word species implies something about the relationships between the peoples of D&D that isn’t lore-accurate. Dwarves are not to elves as dogs are to cats. The interbreeding thing really isn’t the problem, it’s just [I]illustrative of[/I] the problem. This is why I keep bringing up the common ancestor thing. All life on Earth is related through evolution from a single common ancestor. Life forms that are more distantly related are [I]typically[/I] less similar (though there are cases of convergent evolution where very distantly related species develop similar traits), and it is usually only very closely related species that can interbreed. In D&D? None of that is the case. Life forms are directly created by gods or magic, and have no evolutionary relationship to other created life forms, yet they can interbreed freely. The entire taxonomic system just makes absolutely no sense to apply to D&D. [/QUOTE]

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